Egypt’s first Coptic female governor chosen REFELA member

16-12-2018 11:18 PM

Ganna Ahmed

Egypt’s Governor of Dumyat (Damietta), Manal Awad Mikhail, has been chosen for membership of Réseau des Femmes Elues Locales d’Afrique (REFELA), as one of the nine members for North African countries. Mikhail is the second woman to act as governor in Egypt, and the first Coptic woman to hold that position.

Governor Mikhail’s selection was announced through the 8th summit of the United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) held in the Moroccan city of Marrakech last November. The event gathered over more than 8,000 participants from 53 countries across the continent and it has been the gathering in which the African municipal movement has tackled, with a hopeful perspective, the most important, and even painful, issues of the region.

Egypt’s active participation was praised by the official authorities and organisations through the event, especially that the country is preparing to hold the presidency of the African Union in 2019.

REFELA has become an integral part of UCLG Africa and represents locally elected women officials within the global Women’s Commission of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG Women).

Reaching Out

Watani started as an Egyptian weekly Sunday newspaper published in Cairo. The word Watani is Arabic for “My Homeland”. The paper was founded in 1958 by the prominent Copt Antoun Sidhom (1915 – 1995), who strove for the establishment of a civil, democratic society in Egypt, where all Egyptians would enjoy full citizenship rights regardless of their religious denomination. To this day when Watani is published as a weekly paper and an online news site, the objective remains the same. Those in charge of Watani view this role as a patriotic all-Egyptian vocation. Special attention is given to shedding light on Coptic culture and tradition as authentically Egyptian, this being a topic largely disregarded or little-understood by Egypt’s media. Watani is deeply dedicated to offer its readers high quality, extensive, objective, credible and well-researched media coverage, with special focus on Coptic issues, culture, heritage, and contribution to Egyptian society.